Located in Siberia, Norilsk is the world's northernmost city with a population of more than 100,000, and it's not just one of the coldest cities of the world—it's also one of the filthiest. Nickel ore smelting has transformed the landscape into one of the ten most polluted places on Earth.

The polar vortex has brought record-breaking temperatures to the US and Canada, but in some parts…
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The average monthly temperatures in Norilsk range from -16.6°F (-27°C) to 57.2°F (14°C), but it once hit -63.6°F (-53.1°C).

The city is covered with snow for about 270 days a year, and the inhabitants must deal with snowstorms one day out of every three.

During the summer, the sun does not set for more than six weeks, and the polar night lasts for six weeks, too.

The first houses were built in the early 1920s, but the official date of founding is 1935, when the city became the center of the Norillag (Norilsk Corrective Labor Camp), which housed 1,200 inmates who built a mining-metallurgic complex and started to mine nickel and copper.

The population of the camp peaked in 1951 at 72,500, most of them political prisoners. After the camp closed on August 22, 1956, some continued to live there for the rest of their lives.

The the largest nickel-copper-paladium deposits of the world are found here, with more than 1.8 billion tons of resources, but there are significant coal, cobalt, platinum and palladium mines, too.